EU scales back Gaza-Egypt border monitoring mission

observers, the German ones included, be on the Israeli side of the Lebanese border?

A breath of fresh air on Haaretz. Thanks for your wise and insightful remarks Jeff. It grows so tiresome reading the usual cacaphony of propaganda that is based in crap rather than fact. The likes of Dutch, Clickfool, Hamas Hannah and these other Nursery school failures makes me want to switch to another more intelligence based forum. Its interesting how whenever you do hit them with something they cannot dispute there never is an intelligent fact based response. They just remain dead silent. I just wish that they would remain silent permanently and save their remarks for Al Jazeera. At least their readers all buy into the same hatred and bullshit day in and day out.

Thanks for the "Expert" opinion Reader. Israel is responsible for Gaza and always has been something which idiots that can only read Western propaganda and CNN know. The reality is simple. Counter to the Palestinian prograganda machine which spins a sad picture Israel supplies food, medicine, water and electricity to the Palestinians. Yes indeed the Palestinians elected Hamas in free elections. So did the Venezuelans elect Hugo Chavez and the Iranians elect Ahmanutjob. Now if Ahmanutjob declared war on Canada would we send his people money?? No. If his people support him they support his policies!! Therefore your wisdom holds no intelligent basis whatsoever. Hamas is the Palestinians and they support death to Israel and they want all of Israel back. That is in their "Charter" so until they rescind that, why should Israel give them a grain of salt??? So much for Free Elections. You reap what you sow!!!

Pulling Rafah terminal UN observers demands other accommodation is made.

Gaza is cut off from Egypt. The Egyptian government has chosen to deal with the Ramallah regime. As Israel prevents shipments by sea and air, and restricts transfer of food, water, and other aid to Gaza, they and the Egyptians must be accountable for the Gazans. Let's hope they fulfill they duty. Just because the people voted for an Hamas majority government is not reason to cause them to suffer or die from want of necessary assistance. Coup? Maybe, but doubtful. Fatah shoots at Hamas, Hamas shoots back, Fatah runs away, Hamas says come back...come back...Fatah says no way. Hamas is duly elected whether America or Israel et al likes it or not. For governments to deal with Ramallah only puts the coup on the other foot.

The obvious difference between the two events is that in Gaza potentially dangerous materials were removed, while in the West Bank weapons were brought into the examination room.

But your political bias always affects your objectivity. No remedy for that.

That there is nothing in you hypothesis that stops the Egyptians letting those 6,000 stranded Gazans *leave* Egypt and return to Gaza through the Rafah crossing. Indeed, if we follow your logic Egypt will *want* to send all those Palestinians back to Gaza thru a one-way opening of the Rafah crossing in order to be rid of them. Egypt is certainly keeping that crossing closed. They have been told to, either by Israel alone, the USA alone, or Israel plus the Quartet, and the inducements and/or threats that lay behind that instruction is enough to convince Egypt that it is in her interests to do so. Israel can no longer control Rafah, so it wants Kerem Shalom (which it alone controls) to be the new border crossing. It needs Egypt onside for that to happen, and so Egypt has been appropriately promised and/or threatened into agreeing.

Let's see. Hamas is now in control of the Gaza Strip and, therefore, of their side of the Rafah crossing with Egypt and Egypt is in control of her side of it. Any previous agreement between Israel, the PA, Egypt, and the E.U. concerning the Gaza-Egypt border is now null and void due to new management in Hamastan. So, why does the Rafah crossing remain closed? Certainly, Hamas could open or close the crossing at will from its side and Egypt from her side without Israel, the PA, or the E.U. being able to do a damned thing about it without the use of military force. If Hamas wants the crossing to be opened, then it must be Egypt alone who is keeping it closed. I wonder why. Could it be that Egypt is not too keen on Gazan terrorist scum entering her country, joining with the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, trashing the tourist industry, and trying to bring down the Egyptian government?

Yep, Jonathan in Frankfurt has exposed himself, as Absolute Sweden exposed himself yesterday on these posts. These are merely pimply faced zionists, trying to do a job many levels above their capabilities. Last summer, the zionist government hired hundreds, if not more, of these types to clog up many and varied international web sites with their usual and banal zionist message. With the defeat of the pathetic IDF to Hez'b Allah, suddenly all these folks packed up and went back to high school or wherever. On these threads, there is a certain person who seems to be the herding dog for the newer elements of the zionist hired help. I'm sure that you have already figured that out for yourself. I notice that there are now more muslim noms de plum for these self-same zionists. Regards, and keep posting!

Browsing through your posts, it becomes quickly evident that they all draw from a database of about 100 records, every record a mixture of facts, assumptions, exaggerations and outright lies. Who pays you for the data hosting, or are you just an embittered, lone warrior?

Axel, these pathetic zionists have becomed so used to a constant diet of overt and covert tribal propaganda that they are completely unable to separate truth from lies. Just like a baby is comfortable in its own dirty diaper, the zionists are only comfortable in the company of their fellows, each of them muttering and chanting their tribal soliqui to the unlistening others. Parrots are much more capable of intelligent and intellectual discussion than are these lobotomized zionist types who post here. But some of us continue to throw our pearls before swine: what else to do if one values truth?

Hamas' true agenda is to be found in their honest and principled Charter: why not read it? It will save you from asking such stupid and rhetorical questions.

You zionist dependents are continually demanding help from the adults in various international bodies, only to snivel and whine when they, from time to time, ask you to clean up you own room. You lot are pathetic!

YEP!!! and call off the useless Academic boycotts.

Please remind me again how Israel stole Palestinian land?

Where a great neo-Nazi parade is taking place this weekend, as is reported by all German media. A few weeks ago it was Berlin, next week it will be at another city. This is now common practice here in Germany. Interestingly enough, the neo-Nazis congratulated a few days ago the leadership of the new leftist party for their militant anti-US and anti-Israel positions. On this point at least, they are united.

the EU folds - every time.

"With neo-Nazis sitting in your parliaments and with daily neo-Nazi marches through your streets, he could be back sooner even you could wish for." I guess this is what they call 'letting the cat out of the bag'. Using the possessive noun "your", not "our", you unmistakably reveal that your German identity is a fake. Now where is your shoddy apartment really? Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, or rather one of these ultra-Zionist outposts where you are tasked with sampling anti-German propaganda?

That wasn't what they had in mind when they decided to help Israel control the only access to the world for the trapped Palestinians of the Gaza Strip.

Removing monitors? Just another case of Euro-cowardice. Euros are the biggest cowards in the world, being long on rhetoric and short on substance. Where is the Euromouth Solana when he is needed?

What is Haaretz trying to say here ? These are two completely different stories. EU monitors= hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil

Jonathan S. "border police from Germany and the EU were sent to the Gaza border." Fact: Out of 87 EU monitors, 5 (in words: five) were German police officers. Only a pathological urge to put "German" in the forefront ot everything "evil" can result in such distortions.

What possible reason would Hamas have to keep any border crossing closed?? They are the ones smuggling arms into Gaza from Egypt and are effectively depriving their people of vital goods. What could they hope to accomplish in the absence of an Israeli security shutdown other than to plunge their people deeper into misery and blame it on Israel?? This certainly must demonstrate to leaders of the world, other than the British (who are ready to kiss Hamas butt because of the release of their journalist) that Hamas is not a peaceful group.

There is another hoax mission, the one of the German navy, which is for months out on a nice Mediterranean trip. As everyone knew that arms would be smuggled trough the Syrian border by land, Germany decided to mount another public relation event to be able to say, that they participated. Of course, as was predicted, the German navy did not intercept even a single pistol. The only appreciable event that was reported was a German spy ship apparently spying on Israel. I would be a little more cautious speaking about Goebbels. With neo-Nazis sitting in your parliaments and with daily neo-Nazi marches through your streets, he could be back sooner even you could wish for.

Two representative stories, one from Gaza, one from the WB, concerning pal authorities' attitudes to education. Is it any wonder that there is so little progress made toward social and cultural advancement among the pals? Education must be made sacrosanct. Those pals who stand in its way are traitors to the pal people.

them off.It ain't going to happen. Besides are you absolutely certain it was Hamas that stole the chemicals.Could be the remnants of the dahlan thugs or any of the street gangs, or even israeli thiefs who want to make Hamas look bad.

which stole Palestinian land!

"These monitors were spending most of the day (and night) monitoring the food, beer and waitresses." Evidently - with Israel keeping Rafah closed most of the time, most of the time they were unemployed. Their fault???

Will you ever manage a post WITHOUT lying from the first sentence onwards? The EU monitor mission was not sent "to the Gaza border" but to the Rafah crossing. Monitoring a crossing is a bit different from monitoring a border. And you have certainly evidence that smuggling through Rafah happened under their eyes? If so, it happened under the eyes of the Israeli security, which also controlled Rafah by TV. With your Goebbels-like appearances here you cause more damage to Israel than a dozen anti-semites would.

Arm forces should not enter any educational campus.PERIOID. Hamas should allow and form an independent academic committee to investigate this issue.

How can Hamas oppose opening of Gaza border crossings, even at Kerem Shalom, at a time where every truck (once read 400/day were necessary for correct food amount feed in) is URGENTLY needed IN THE GAZANS MOST ELEMENTARY INTEREST? How can Israel ignore those caught up by the events on either side of Gaza-Egypt border? Even passengers who had to wait open end at airports KNOW what this means, though THEY at least have toilets and usually the possibility to drink and eat something. Both sides behaviour should be more human!

We do not have a report here of what the chemicals were. Did it never occur to either of you that Tim McVey blew up the Federal building in OKC using agricultural chemicals? There may have been a logical reason for the siezure. As I was cautioned last week, don't let your political views get in the way of objectivity.

If we can get past your predisposed bias of theft for anarchys sake, another "hypothesis" is that (a) Hamas can use the chemicals to make explosives in order to defend themselves against incursions by the IDF, while (b) removing the same supplies from Fatah. You might not like Hamas, but it makes military sense for them to do so.

I have just spent a few weeks in a hotel in Ashkelon. These monitors were spending most of the day (and night) monitoring the food, beer and waitresses. As for monitoring the border they would have been far mor useful in Darfur or some other place.

In all my posts I always say Hamas Militants are no more then thugs and petty criminals who just happen to be theives and terrorist. Now they are stealing chemicals from a university, kinda reminds you of when Saddam invaded Kuwait and the soldiers were looting nonstop. Hamas militants deserve nothing including even reconition because they care less about other people and to kill or maim someone means nothing to them. The IDF is sooner then later going to have to go in and solve this problem. Launching Quassams and taking blame for them shows they have no intention of trying to make peace. So the IDF needs to go in and solve this once and for all and when they ask for a truce say a loud NO and don't stop till they are removed from Gaza.

Hamas plans on introducing security and calm to Gaza. Therefore, it steals agriculture-related chemicals from a teaching university. Steals. Agriculture chemicals. Hamas thieves are likely planning more missiles and bombs for Israel and for Fatah. Introducing security indeed. Meanwhile, Palestinians are correct when they say Gaza is still occupied. Occupied by Hamas.

With a great public relation show, border police from Germany and the EU were sent to the Gaza border. As was to be expected, they did nothing to prevent smuggling into Gaza. Now, after the Hamas putsch, they are getting nervous to get possibly in the frontline and are running away, as was to be expected. Last week, it was reported that EU-UNIFIL troops made a deal with Hizbullah: For safety from Hizbullah attacks they agreed for collaboration and even exchange of intelligence about Israeli moves. This is what Israel has to expect from Europe. The foolish Olmert government wants to bring in more of this sort to the borders of Israel.